Come Gentle Night is the fifth in the excellent Natalie Marsh series, part mystery, part suspense, part clean romance. Natalie Marsh is a psychologist who is attending a gala fundraiser for the Daffodil House Women's Shelter when her assistant requests she keep an eye on two young men, Rowan and Cooper, the latter who is confrontational when around authorities. And there were plenty of authorities at the ball. Rowan and Jemma meet at the event and have eyes only for each other. But Natalie and her husband Gideon get themselves into an unexpected mess when they discover skeletons in the closets of Rowan's family. Rowan's brother, Brett, has been accused of a murder years ago and Rowan believes him to be innocent. Well. Sparks fly. Crimes are committed and murder comes knocking. Who can one really trust?

Mystery fans who prefer their crime stories with a side of romance ought to seek out this series, well worth reading. I particularly enjoy the psychological slant. Romance I could do without but it does play a role in the story.

My sincere thank you to Covenant Communications and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this engrossing book and for introducing me to this fabulous series.

With the reference to the quote from Romeo and Juliet, much of the story comes into focus. Jemma and Rowan are two starry eyed young adults who do impetuous things, not considering the consequences, which some prove to be deadly.

Dr. Natalie Marsh is no stranger to difficult situations and becomes involved in the case of treachery, deceit, and murder. With several twists and subplots, the culprits are not revealed until the very end that have you guessing throughout the story.

I did like the book, but I believe I would have had a better sense of the characters if I had read previous books in the series. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for an advanced e-arc of the book. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

3.5/5 stars

A clean suspense novel. Natalie Marsh is is a psychologist who sometimes gets entangled with murder investigations. This is the 5th book in a series, which I didn’t realize when I requested an ARC. The title comes from Romeo and Juliet, and while this isn’t a retailing there are easy plot comparisons to the Shakespeare play.

At a fundraising gala for a domestic violence shelter, a cop gets pepper sprayed and accuses two men (in their 20s). They are taken into custody but released when one is alibied by Natalie because she was dancing with him at the time. A 19 year old sister of one of the detectives at the event was dancing with one of the men and is inexplicably drawn to him. He believes the police faked evidence putting his older brother in jail. She wants to help him in his quest to exonerate his brother. But things quickly escalate between the police and the men with Natalie being dragged in as someone they reach out to for help.

There are a lot of good twists and turns. I did however easily predict two of the major potential masterminds and their reasons. (But I read a lot of mysteries.) I was surprised that Natalie didn’t actively investigate but people came to her to share confidences. And she is good at observations. I don’t know if that is the same in her other stories. One of my least favorite characters is her husband Gideon. I found him pompous, condescending and breaching of trust. I wouldn’t have minded if he gotten killed off. I saw another reviewer who said he was their favorite character. That must be a hold over feeling from previous books because I saw nothing attractive or supportive in him. He was good for gathering one clue and being dramatic when Marsh goes missing.

I enjoyed the storytelling for the most part. There did seem to be some retelling as different people are brought up to speed on plot points. Also the sister comes off as a very young 19 and her instant infatuation and believing the guy was over the top. But so is Romeo and Juliette in that regards. There is a murder, shooting, knives and mentions of domestic violence and previous homicides. I’ve already checked and my local library has the other books in the series so I may read earlier adventures. (It is a local to my state publisher.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Covenant Communications for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
(3.5 stars)

I truly enjoyed reading this suspense book. Every time I thought I knew who had done it, a new issue would arrise or a new suspect would appear. I didn't know who to trust through the whole book. We'll written and easy to read.

Come, Gentle Night (Natalie Marsh #5) by Stephanie Black, 296 pages. Covenant Communications, 2022. $17.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Natalie and Gideon are simply enjoying a fundraising gala for a women’s domestic violence shelter, but, when a cop gets pepper sprayed at the event and two boys get taken as suspects, they somehow get tangled up in the mess. Again. So much for their “this many days since our last entanglement with the police” chart.
Natalie is a psychologist, and each book in this series is about how she inexplicably gets involved in police dealings, generally homicide cases. Black does a great job of making the mysteries complicated enough to stay engaged while still allowing for clues that point readers in the right direction. I love figuring out what’s going on, and I didn’t put this book down until I had finished
The majority of characters are implied White. The mature content rating is for mention of alcohol and groping as well as for illegal activity. The violence rating is for mentions of domestic violence and suicide, gun use, assault, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Synopsis:

Mental health therapist Natalie Marsh and her husband, Gideon, become involved with a police investigation after witnessing the aftermath of a strange assault at a charity gala. In the following days, things quickly escalate as the primary suspect for the assault also becomes the primary suspect for a police officer's death--and he asks Natalie to help him clear his name, as well as the name of his brother who was convicted of murdering his own wife years before. Although she tries to distance herself from the case, Natalie finds she is becoming more and more bound to the center of it all. She and Gideon must find the truth and report it before the murderer tries to silence her forever.



Review:



I liked how this book didn't take long to really get going. Almost from the first chapter it was a whirlwind of detail! There were plenty of confusing, plot-twisting clues. I have to be honest though, the whirlwind-like quality of the plot flow made it a little exhausting with keeping track of who was doing what crazy thing at a given moment.



Some of the characters were definitely mentally ill and others were downright exasperating, but Natalie and Gideon were anchors of reason and goodness. I appreciated how at least one character comes to realize her need for better mental health and explicitly states that she plans to seek help, based on her poor judgement calls.



This was a fun read, but I don't recommend reading it at night by yourself. You may start hearing things.



Content Guide:

Language: Aggressive threats and slander are exchanged between a couple characters

Sex & Affection: A couple holds hands, kisses, and gazes into one another's eyes

Drug & Substance Use: Champagne is consumed

Violence & Crime: Many crimes are committed, including verbal and physical assault, vandalism, kidnapping, murder, and drugging against a person's will. However, most of these crimes are not described in detail and the reader is not informed until after the crime was already committed and the clues are being examined



I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.

Come Gentle Night, by Stephanie Black, is a fast paced psychological suspense. While there's some romance, it's not enough to detract from the storyline or suspense. I found most of the characters genuinely interesting. While the book really kept me guessing, a couple of the bad guys were somewhat obvious about halfway in. I don't mind that because it helps me to get more into the story.
Natalie Marsh is attending an important fundraising gala when her intern asks her to keep an eye on her boyfriend and cousin. She's happy to help with something so seemingly simple. But when one of the other attendees is assaulted, she realizes that there's much more to the situation than she realized.
Suddenly, Natalie finds herself in the middle of a dangerous fued without much say in the matter. And trying to offer support and maybe find some answers, along the way may be risking her very life.
I received this book as an ARC and this is my honest review.

Jemma meets Rowan at a fundraising gala for Daffodil House. Violet Devin is an intern with Nefesh Bria and has asked Natalie Marsh to act as a peacemaker during some family drama but, it ends up being more than she bargains for.

Rowan Montrose is convinced that his older brother, Brett was wrongly accused of murdering his wife, and he is convinced that Natalie can help him.

For me, the beginning and the middle was slow and lethargic, but I stuck with and I am glad I did because after Jemma Bartholomew stopped making really bad choices, which we all do under stressful situations, she was able to see that not everyone was doing her a favor. Sometimes I can get lost with all the information in a mystery but in Come, Gentle Night, I wasn’t. There were lots of loose ends in the beginning but everything by the end is explained I really enjoyed this

My gratitude to Covenant Communications and NetGalley. All opinions expressed are honest and mine.

Thank you NetGalley and Covenant Communications for the copy of Come, Gentle Night. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read the other books in the series first. I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. Violet and Jemma came off as being really young, like high school young. Natalie was a sympathetic character, while Gideon was kind of blah. I’m curious which of the other characters are recurring. The writing was good and kept me reading to see what was going to happen. The story started out great but quickly got complicated. Then what was going on was summed up by one character explaining everything. My reading pet peeve-being is being told, not shown. If you don’t mind being told, you would probably like this book. It just wasn't great for me.

Stephanie Black has been a long time favorite author. And that continues with Come , Gentle Night! I love a good mystery and most of the time I can guess who the murderer/bad guy is fairly quickly. But not this one. It had me guessing and second guessing until the very end. Definitely recommend this to all the mystery and Suspense lovers!!

This is a fun and engaging mystery that will keep you guessing! I had not read the previous books in this series, and I definitely recommend that you start with those. They will make this book much easier to understand and enjoy.

That being said, this book is filled with twists and turns- it will keep you up all night guessing and turning pages! highly recommend!

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did, which is why I kept reading even though I didn’t like the characters. I picked the book based on the author, knowing the genre she writes is different from what I usually read, and I thought a mystery/suspense story sounded appealing. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice this is part of a series. Not having read any of the previous books, I felt lost for quite awhile. The author did keep me guessing about who the bad guy was, but it was pretty slow moving for most of the book with some very immature characters..

You know those books that you shouldn't read when you're really tired and you want to go to sleep early but you pick up the book and start reading and think just one more chapter and then just one more chapter and before you realize it, it's 1:30 in the morning? You know those books, right? Well, this is one those books!! I couldn't put it down.

Poor Natalie Marsh, she's like Jessica from Murder She Wrote. Trouble seems to follow her wherever she goes. This time Natalie wasn't the main suspect or problem, but she sure got in pretty deep regardless. I love this character, and really enjoy Stephanie Black's writing.

Thank you to Shadow Mountain and Net Galley for an advanced read copy in exchange for an honest review. I can't wait until this book is published and others can enjoy it, too.

This is a good whodunnit! I love a good mystery. This was a quick read as it kept me engaged not wanting to put it down! Highly recommend to mystery lovers!

This book is full of twists and turns. I thought I had it figured out then something new came up and I had to readjust my thinking. I thought the characters were interesting and each of them added a fun element to the story. Overall an interesting mystery.

“Gideon leaned toward the phone. "No. I'm sitting here trying to calculate how many dumb decisions it's possible to make in a one-week period. Are you and Rowan going for a world record?"

Okay Gideon by far is my favorite character in the Natalie Marsh series. He has a great sense of humor. I’m always laughing at his jokes or sarcastic comments. The series wouldn’t be the same without him.

This is book number five in the Natalie Marsh series. It can be read as a standalone, but it is better if you read the previous books first. Like the rest of the Natalie Marsh series, Come, Gentle Night is based on a Shakespeare play. The play was Romeo and Juliet and I think that might have been my biggest problem with the book. Rowan and Jemma were Romeo and Juliet, and I struggled a lot with them. They made so many stupid decisions, I kept having to stop and take a few minutes to calm down. That being said, this book was still a fast, enjoyable read.

This book was like Stephanie Black’s other books. There was lots of twist and turns. Wondering how all the loose strings are going to come together. This book had a good balance of Natalie and Gideon and Rowan and Jemma. I love that we got to see how Natalie and Gideon were a couple months since a they’ve been married. I also enjoyed getting to see a different side of detective Abe Bartholomew.

Thanks NetGalley and Covenant Communication for the ARC. These thoughts and opinions are my own

Such a great series! I have enjoyed following Natalie Marsh and her propensity for falling into the middle of dangerous situations. I didn't want to put this one down. Clear your schedule and enjoy the ride!

I think I should have read the other books in this series first, I had a hard time following it because I hadn't.

Loved this book! I didn't realize it was part of a series, but that didn't detract from the mystery and the unexpected twist and turns! I will definitely have to go back to read the first books in the series!

Fantastic mystery. Wonderful writing. This is my first Stephanie Black book, but while I can see that it would be more rewarding to start the series with the first book, I didn’t feel lost or confused jumping into the series with book five. I definitely want to go back and read the first four though! Thank you NetGalley for the copy, the review is my own opinion.